Economic laws apply in the plant world. Unless you demand unusual varieties, growers will not supply them. So why let these charmers disappear?
Profitless Plants To Growers
Unless gardeners ask for them, plants become profitless to growers and soon disappear. Some will never be missed. Others are so pretty, so useful, and your garden is poorer without them.
As Milton had it, your refusal to consider them is not “an injury and sullenness against Nature.”
Nor is it due to stony indifference. Rather it is that you do not know them—have never seen them. Or that they have been presented to you wrong—have intimidating botanical names, or are inadequately described and pictured in catalogs.
Ericas: Hardier Than The Heathers
Some you would not let disappear off the face of the earth if you knew them are the true heaths (ericas), generally hardier than the heathers.
Very early in spring, they cheer you with color. Then, in the lime-free ground, they form low, evergreen mats of densely congregated little needle-like leaves which, in the North, bronze in winter. A light trimming after they bloom next year’s showing.
One of the prettiest and earliest (perhaps even ahead of crocus) is E. vivelli, whose wiry, 6-inch stems carry hordes of tiny, rosy crimson bells.
You might find it a relief to know that besides the brassy yellow basket-of-gold (Alyssum saxatile), there is a paler, more refined primrose-sulfur form (A. s. luteum or citrinum). And a double one (A. s. compactum flore-pleno) whose cute little blossoms resemble wee golden door knobs. Its slowly expanding gray clumps are just what you want near pink Daphne cneorum.
Euphorbias
While most euphorbias, including the beloved poinsettia, are tropical, a few are amazingly durable in well-drained soil.
If you knew them, you would treasure at least two for their puckish, carefree charm. Euphorbia myrsinites is a quaintly prostrate wall plant, dangling fat, sea-blue branches several inches long adorned with curiously appealing yellow bracts in April-June.
Also “untouched by solemn thought” is the 18-inch, erect but roly-poly Euphorbia epithymoides with plump, succulent grayish leaves, which become a glowing russet in fall.
In spring, it puts out reddish stems, then globular umbels of yellow bracts. Never dull, it is a gay addition to the sunny border and lasts for years.
Butterfly-weed
If butterfly-weed (Asclepias tuberosa) came from some remote Asiatic valley and were querulous, its demand would be fierce.
However, it is native and placid. And very showy plants, 2’ to 3’ feet high, last forever, bringing high color to the garden with their clear orange blossoms borne in great, flaring umbels.
False Indigo
False indigo (Baptisia australis) is a fountain of blue in spring. Unfortunately, its sheer bulk, a buxom of 3’ to 4’ feet, makes it too much for many small gardens.
Another baptisia, the species bracteata, has as pretty flowers, and gently pendulous spikes of a soft yellow and is more restrained, only 18” inches high.
Amsonia Tabernaemontana
There is no genuine fault you can charge against Amsonia tabernaemontana, the outstanding perennial dogbane. It is a handsome spring to fall, happy in average soil, in the sun or partial shade, effective in the border, or naturalized in a city or seaside garden.
From May to July, supple, 3-foot plants—shiny green all summer and golden in fall—sport 3- to 4-inch clusters of tiny, steel blue flowers, wonderful for cutting.
Filipendulous
Filipendulas, usually consigned to the semi-wild corner, present a brace of contrasting yet excellent garden subjects.
In truth, F. rubra venusta (the elegant Martha Washington Plume) demands rich, moist, deep fertile soil and some shade.
For this, it gives you artistically cut foliage and—in midsummer—superbly clustered blooms, bright carmine, and very fragrant. Conversely, F. hexapetala flore-pleno (double six-petaled dropwort) likes sun and drier ground.
Barely 15” inches tall, an exquisite dwarf with ferny leaves topped by neat white floral globes in June-July, it is ideal in the rockery and as an edging.
Coreopsis Verticillata
Despite its many hapless relatives, ill-groomed weeds with biennial tendencies, Coreopsis verticillata, or golden showers, holds its head proudly in any border.
When about 2’ to 2 ½’ feet tall, it unleashes a summer-long procession of starry little golden blossoms and, besides, has delicately ferny leaves, which are very useful in short arrangements.
Remove seed pods, divide clumps into alternate springs, and golden showers will reward you untiringly.
Gooseneck Flower
For shady nooks, let us resurrect the gooseneck flower (Lysimachia clethroides). Bronzy tints suffuse its ample foliage.
And, in midsummer, when about 3’ feet high, it produces gracefully drooping spikes of white flowers, which are as interesting in the bouquet as in the border. Goosenecks need dividing only occasionally.
Lady’s Mantle
The rarely encountered lady’s mantle, Alchemilla Vulgaris, also is lovely grouped in filtered shade. True, its wispy clusters of bloom are a muted chartreuse, its beauty demure and fragile, but how enchantingly it sparkles when dew forms on its sizeable, rounded leaves!
Centranthus Ruber
The valerian Centranthus ruber, a 3-foot stalwart, may not be impressive in May and June as autumn nears. However, its clusters of startling red blooms come faster and faster, becoming more brilliant and sweeter-smelling.
This valerian needs dividing every third year, sparking up a border or wild garden in sun or light shade.
Ruellia Ciliosa
Ruellia ciliosa is a tough little 12-inch native, squat and clumpy. No dazzler, yet it brings life to many hot, barren spots with its tireless yield (June to August) of funneled lavender flowers in a petunia motif.
Aglaya
Still another easy-going plant is the Shasta daisy, Aglaya. Lots of its relatives are beautiful, indeed, but unhappy and chary of bloom in hot weather and fussy about wet feet. Not so Aglaya.
It is a sinewy 2 ½’ foot clump that, under conditions its relatives scorn, gives full, fringed white blossoms to 3 ½” inches across nearly all summer and surmounts winter with equanimity.
44659 by Roderick W. Cumming